GRAVE MISTAKE RECORDS AND MAILORDER
Webstore Update - December 16, 2016
This is looking like the last Grave Mistake webstore update of
2016! First off, thanks to everyone who picked up some records during
last month's Black Friday sale - hopefully you were able to grab something cool at a good price!
In new release news, in case you missed it last week, we've got a
new release out now on the Vinyl Conflict Label - the debut 7" EP from
Richmond, VA's Memory Loss. You can scoop up a copy of the EP in the webstore (we have a small number of the Purple vinyl left for mailorder), and you can give it a listen over at our Bandcamp page as well (it's also available for free DL). Here's a write up of the EP for you:
"First vinyl offering from MEMORY LOSS, one of Richmond’s
newest and most exciting hardcore punk acts. On “Blackout” you get four
songs that mine from the golden era of early 80s hardcore punk and
90s-era noise rock but with a very unique and individual take. Each song
is the equivalent of a dark path we’ve all been down, but never talked
or written about. Fear not though, MEMORY LOSS is there to speak for
you. They’ve placed their finger right on the pulse of just how
difficult it is to live in the age of anxiety and dread. If you like
your punk with a general feeling of despair and disillusionment, look no
further."
Thanks to everyone who has checked out the EP or picked up a copy
so far! Memory Loss will be heading down south for a little tour from December 31st-January 8th, and you can check out all of the dates and info on the tour event page. They will be accompanied by Nosebleed,
another sick Richmond band who also has their debut 7" in the works on
Vinyl Conflict for early 2017 (keep your eyes peeled for more info on
that next month), and if all goes well the band might have some copies
on that tour as well.
There is a ton of stuff in this latest webstore update, so I'm
going to forego the distro rundown, so check out the full list below and
thanks for all of the support in 2016!
Alex / Grave Mistake Records
For quick browsing of recent additions to the store, you can check out all of these titles mentioned below in the New Arrivals and Recent Restocks sections!
New in the Webstore for 12/16/16:
SHEER MAG "Compilation" LP (Wilsuns Recording Company)
Sheer Mag’s Compilation LP features the Philadelphia rock band’s three seven-inches, released between 2014 and 2016. All twelve songs were recorded onto the same vintage 8-track tape machine, carted to various locations around Philadelphia. The first two were produced in a makeshift studio wedged between two bedrooms in the band’s former South Philly house, while the third came out of a practice space in the Port Richmond neighborhood. Sequenced chronologically, the newly remastered songs reveal a young DIY band finding its sound.
OMEGAS "Power to Exist" LP (Beach Impediment Records)
Much anticipated answer to 2011's 'Blasts of Lunacy,' the Omegas leave off where they picked up, coming back to their personalized vision of the nooks and crannies of early NYHC and proto hardcore cum Darby Crash cum Nollywood prankster at ever more obtuse and challenging angles. The riffs implode and the changes are impossible to follow without a map that probably leads somewhere unpleasant. Even still, the confusion feels like a stroke of luck. The gift is not knowing what you're hearing yet but knowing you've wanted to hear it your whole life. Duck, dive, spit, slam, kill: Makes you go Boom Boom. Flash forward, the power to exist. FFO: getting stop and frisked by the NYPD and having them find a giant lollypop in your otherwise empty bag/wondering who killed Tony Frenchman -Jonah Falco, 2016
KRIMEWATCH "Demo 2016" 7" (Lockin' Out Records)
New from NYC - Japanese punk meets American hardcore; keeping it simple with shouty vocals and driving beats. Demo recording remastered and pressed on vinyl.
KLEENEX / LILIPUT "First Songs" 2xLP (Mississippi Records)
Legendary Swiss punk band from the late '70s. 'You can't dispute Liliput's status as pioneers of feminist art-punk. Along with fellow travelers like The Slits and The Raincoats, this (mostly) female Swiss group took advantage of punk's anything-goes attitude and created jittery, spirited pop that was both in step with the times and completely singular. The early material is a riot of exuberant energy, taking stylistic cues from peers like Gang Of Four and Wire -- propulsive bass, skittering pop rhythms, slashing guitars -- and adding distinctive overlapping vocal patterns, which are sung, shrieked, and hiccuped in three languages and made-up dada slang. More than 20 years on, it still sounds fresh.' --Lisa Gidley. All material has been previously released as Liliput on Kill Rock Stars as a double CD, and a 4 LP box set on Mississippi Records, 1977 1983.First Songs combines all the pre-1982 material. All three Kleenex singles, the first two Liliput 7"'s and all the originally unreleased material prior to Liliput's debut LP.
V/A - "Killed By Deathrock Vol. 2" Compilation LP (Sacred Bones Records)
After the initial blast of punk rock bands made their impression on the youth of the late 1970s, subgenres quickly emerged. Some preferred the faster, louder aggression of hardcore, others the angular danceability of post-punk, some the raw and more personal home-made sound of DIY, and so on. Looking back among and between these genres we now recognize various blends of punk, post-punk, goth rock, industrial, and DIY as “deathrock." In 2014, Sacred Bones Records launched the series Killed By Deathrock to document an entire scene of bands that haven't yet received proper recognition. This is the second volume. The thread that holds these groups together as deathrock bands comes down to their willingness and sometimes compulsion to reveal and explore the darker side of their psyches. Night-soaked dirges of fatality, despair, and horror were rampant, rooted in that sublimity that is found on the edge of the horror genre, as famously developed by Edgar Allan Poe — an edge that relished in misery and openly recognized the inevitable end of any human life.
SIEVEHEAD "Into the Blue" LP (Milk Run Records)
Sievehead come straight out of Sheffield’s The Lughole, a DIY space “run by the punks, for the punks”. With a perfectly honed sound of a band that have been playing together for many years, Sievehead are a relatively new band in Sheffield, but that hasn’t stopped them creating a strong following with a sold out debut cassette on Evil Hoodoo, a 7" on The Lughole's very own label, Kids of The Lughole and a string of packed out shows both in the UK and Europe, and after much anticipation, now have their debut album, Into The Blue coming out 4th December. A joint release for Evil Hoodoo and Milk Run Records and recorded at The Audacious Art Experiment Space by the talented Ben Hunter. With a sound that nods towards some of UK post punk forefathers such as Joy Division / Echo and The Bunnymen and The Cure as well as sounding like they’re straight from the soundtrack to Salad Days alongside bands like Fugazi and Minor Threat, Sievehead have carved their own sound, transferring they’re energetic, raw live sound perfectly onto record.
BREAKDOWN "The 87 Demo" LP (Painkiller Records)
Painkiller and 540 Records have teamed up once again to bring you the other half of the legendary “Breakdown; Both Demos” series: the legendary ’87 Demo. Breakdown’s original 1987 lineup was only together for a few short months, but in that time they produced one of the most legendary and influential recordings in the history of New York Hardcore. Paving the way for every hard and heavy band to follow, Breakdown’s take on hardcore was balanced with the perfect mix of hip hop’s bounce, the power and dynamics of heavy metal, and an unmistakable New York accent laced across a tough, streetwise sound that could only have come out of 1980’s New York City. This LP contains the full 9-song ’87 Demo, released here for the first time on vinyl in its entirety, backed with a crushing live set recorded on WNYU radio’s Crucial Chaos during the summer of 1987. Both recordings have been faithfully restored from original sources and sound better than ever. Includes a full color 12”x24” poster insert with extensive notes and anecdotes from members of the NYHC scene.
NYC HEADHUNTERS "The Rage of the City" 7" (Painkiller Records)
"New Breed" style NYHC has now been entrenched as a stylistic mainstay for hardcore bands longer than the original Lower East Side heyday actually lasted, and it will probably remain that way as long as hardcore continues to be a means of expression for young people. But while plenty of bands continue to dip into that plentiful well, few do it as well as NYC Head Hunters, who have an uncanny knack for knowing the right times to dress things up and when to dumb them down. Comprised of personnel from the Rival Mob, Step Forward, and plenty more, and backed by the expected, period-appropriate production, NYHH debut 7" manages to tap the vein of raw late 80s NYHC without sounding rote or tired 30 years after the fact. Not retro, just timeless.
KRIEGSHOG "S/T" 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Tokyo’s KRIEGSHÖG return with a three new track EP of distorted Japanese hardcore. Catchy bass driven diabolic hardcore with a vocal style that brings to mind “Who the Helpless” era KURO and the LSD flexi as much as the relentless LA’s ICONOCLAST D-Beat attack creating a background soundtrack for the insanity that is Tokyo’s existance. The 7” is housed in a DISCHARGE EP style sleeve with flaps on the outside and thumb cut and comes with a lyric insert. All designed by Bass player Shingo.
MYSTIC INANE "Ep’s of M/I" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Nine track LP collection including MYSTIC INANE's three out of print previous seven inches. Freaked out FLIPPER meets RUDIMENTARY PENI acid punk from New Orleans who channels the weird vibes of earlier SACCHARINE TRUST and battles them against modern distorted hardcore creating a hybrid soundtrack to a bad trip. Whether it is accidental or on purpose MYSTIC INANE are as confusing as they are exciting.
SEMI "Go Viral" 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
A chance meeting of GLOOM, THROBBING GRISTLE and DISORDER. Treading the fine line between genius and parody, London's SEMI deliver four tracks of pure noise hardcore punk which will fit right in between a Crust War or Overthrow band from the mid 90s and a MB or Hermann Nitsch collection. Too clean for the crusties and too noisy for the hardcore scene, SEMI bring performance back to the stage, making sure no-one is ever indifferent to their live antics. Go Viral documents the band at its peak and shows a conceptual band of the kind a city only produces every decade. The record comes housed in a 12 panel CRASS style sleeve designed by singer Ben Fordree giving you just a peak of the trip the band is in.
ULTRA "España Invertebrada" 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Young Barcelona band made up of half ABSURDO and half ANARQUIA VERTICAL members. Their debut EP is pure fire, idealistic hardcore with venom and punch. Sonically clashing the golden years of Spanish or Italian hardcore with early NYHC and even Midwest hardcore while lyrically carrying the torch of anarchist Barcelona bands.
BELGRADO "Obraz" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Obraz is a deconstruction of reality to its basic forms and most primitive elements. The starting point after maximum destruction. A reconstruction towards a new reality. The world of images and a thousand spectacles, fragmented, dismantled and reassembled. Dynamism, rhythm, energy and movement. Creative sense over technique. Reality is a construction that we ourselves create. Belgrado delivers a blend of post-punk that takes its influence from many different styles and combines them together into a new form and rhythm. Carefully constructed sound compositions driven by feelingand the senses. Geometrical figures set in motion. Inspired by the mechanical pulse of minimal synth, the hypnotic sounds of dub, the atmosphere of psychedelic and African music, French cold wave and the post-punk classics. The artwork is a collaboration between Jonathan Sirit, Camila Dunster and Patrycja Proniewska. It includes a 28 pages illustrated booklet and comes in a 350 gsm reverse board sleeve.
ES "Object Relations" 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Object Relations is the debut by Es, four women based between London and Glasgow making 'mutant synth-punk for our dystopian present’ (Jes Skolnik). Tense, bass driven and synth heavy with frantic drumming and cold, direct vocals, the 12" delivers 4 tracks of gelid guitar-less post punk that is equal parts sparse and cosmic. Think of a mix of KUKL with NO DEFENCES jamming with X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND and you may be getting there. The 12” record comes housed in a sleeve designed by Es and comes with a lyric insert and download code.
KRIEGSHOG "S/T" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
The New Wave of Brutality and Hardcore Massacre has arrived. Tokyo punks KRIEGSHÖG are back with their first full length. After 3 7”s that we love at LVEUM they finally went for the album. Thirteen tracks of extremely bass driven hardcore destruction. The recording is relentless, full of energy and distorted. Yet moving from the ultra blown out recording of their earlier output. This is the band’s most dynamic recording so far and in our humble opinion is destined to be a classic and genre defining album. Second press of KRIEGSHÖG LP which we released back in 2010. Released in time for Static Shock Weekend 16 where KRIEGSHÖG will play their first ever European show. This time around the LP comes housed in a heavy duty paste on board sleeve with heavy weight inner sleeve . Overall a top quality packaging for a top quality record.
LOS CRUDOS "Doble LP Discografia" 2xLP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Finally a European version of the long overdue LOS CRUDOS Discography collection. LOS CRUDOS, formed in Chicago's Pilsen neighbourhood in the early 90's, are a Latino punk band with a strong socio-political message and an extremely militant DIY attitude. During their first incarnation, spanning the years 1991 to 1998 the band self-released their own records, printed their own merch, booked their own shows and toured relentlessly around the world. From South America to Japan including a 3 month European tour in the winter of 1996. They spoke to the freaks the outsiders and the minorities and were not afraid of confronting the white middle class punk who reigned supreme during the terrible 90's. A time which will not be remembered for their hardcore output except for a few exceptions, in which CRUDOS are surely included. Their sound, far from being a copycat of whatever flavour of the month was reigning at the time was heavy rooted in the golden years of European and Latino American ferocious hardcore punk. With bands as IMPACT, WRETCHED, OLHO SECO, TERVEET KADET or MASACRE 68 as obvious influences in a time when the simple mention of any of those bands (or any non English speaking bands really) was usually met with a laugh or a joke. They sang in Spanish, with aggression and conviction and that made their message spread out widely, reaching thousands of Spanish speaking punks both in Latino America and Spain as well as inside USA where third generation Latino kids surely were missing a voice within the punk scene. The band split up in 1998 after a really intense year of touring and reformed in 2008.
JANITOR SCUM "S/T" LP (Lumpy Records)
Very sick one woman group outta Calgary from Arielle, the guitarist of Glitter. Punchy new wave punk with a drum machine. Listen to a song here: https://soundcloud.com/
LOWEST FORM, THE "Personal Space" LP (Iron Lung Records)
The second album from UK hardcore engine The Lowest Form, Personal Space sees the band cutting through a comedown fug of feedback, sharp butterflyknife guitars flashing deadly over a wasteground rubble of noise. Songs drawn up from discord, songs of marshalled cacophony, coils of scritching guitars break apart and reform, coalescing around insistent basslines and heavy drumbeats, before splintering again. It's hardcore constructed from textured noise as much as from breakdowns and riffs, rumbling infectious chants emerging from the wavering clamor, the vile keening of consciousness's half-known edges, noise in the grain of it all, noise as bedrock, an abrasive acid bath of fuzz, susurration and machinewhirr. SMASH MY FUCKIN' HEAD AGAINST THE WALL" is the line that opens it up, rising out of Interplanetary Bad Boy's hissing swell. Driven through the album are anguished explorations of interior/exterior limits, whirling around viciously in the grubby borders of your skull, spinning hopelessly in the cosmic of the aether, untethered, higher than the sky but way down in the muck. From Gak Attack's claustrophobic pogo or Last Smash's drawling thump to Star Slammers manic tumble and Dread Future's rolling barrage, The Lowest Form have brought together another LP of murdered-out panicattack punk, lithe and unleashed, born of bad vibes and background radiation, an album at once uncomfortably close and fully heavy." -Joe Briggs
KLOUT "Demo" 7" (Not For You Recordings)
Brand new band out of South Florida. Think 86 MENTALITY with some d-beats here and there also taking cues from classic 80's hardcore bands. Klout is hard hitting and in your face. Pick up a tape before they're all gone.
FLASHER "S/T" LP (Sister Polygon Records)
Vinyl version of the debut EP from Washington, DC's FLASHER. A bionic electricity from the parallel timespace of 30 years before and since, who is Flasher? What did unnaturally scripted television programs about man as robot have to say about cybernetics? The future is an x-ray machine and this movie is about seeing through your own body. 7 songs to soundtrack what's happened to the city before and since. Flasher is a music group from Washington, DC featuring Taylor Mulitz, Emma Baker and Daniel Saperstein.
ERIK NERVOUS "Teen Distortion Art Junk Music" 7" (Neck Chop Records)
Remember what it was like being a bored teenager? The awkward feelings of being frustrated and anxious all the time. Most of us just took it out on our friends and parents, not Erik Nervous. The self-described “Loner with a four track” lays it all out in his music. His spastic jerky delivery (on all the instruments he plays on this 7”) combined with his apprehensive vocals are the perfect combination! Punk is built on this formula but rarely do we have somebody like Erik to execute it in the way it should be done. Building on what he started with the Warm Ratio 7”, this EP certifies that Erik is right where others strive to be. Don’t snooze on this one!
BETA BOYS "After Dark" 7" (Neck Chop Records)
Finally, it’s here! More new music from the Beta Boys! After a standout 7” on Eat The Life/Lumpy Records and some demos the world has been thirsting for more. Beta Boys have a sound that is a call back to when punk was fresh without sounding like a boring rehash band. All of their songs have a rhythmic echo that stays in your head for days after hearing it. The inconsistent sloppy delivery over a classic mid-tempo 80s punk sound make for an excellent combination. This band fills all the void in your records right now.
WOODBOT "Krang Gang" LP (Neck Chop Records)
WOODBOOT'S ON THE STREET AGAIN!!!! There is no better way to introduce the Neck Chop Records label than to do it with a limited vinyl pressing of the first WOODBOOT demo cassette from 2014. WOODBOOT have been compared to The Ramones and The Spits but they are much more than that. Each song is a one to two minute blast impregnating your ears with sing-along rage! This demo serves as the foundation to WOODBOOT's takeover of your turntable - then the world! This demo was followed up by the catchy "Crime Time" LP on Erste Theke Tontraeger and a brilliant 7" on Total Punk (both available in the shop as well). Get off my street motherfucker!
ACRYLICS "S/T" 12" (Neck Chop Records)
Acrylics change the hardcore game with their sound while everybody else is trying to sound the same. There is a fun sound brewing in the bay area right now and Acrylics are at the forefront of that! I couldn't be more proud and excited to release this S/T EP on a one-sided 12". Previously released on cassette on Discontinuous Innovation in a run of 150 that were gone in a blink. We've now had it remastered for vinyl by the great Will Killingsworth and put it on a one sided 12". Very proud of this one!
PMS 84 "S/T (2nd)" 7" (Nightmare Records)
2nd proper vinyl release from this Portland-based hardcore punk band featuring 4 brand new tracks! On this new EP, PMS 84 has gone through a lineup change with Jesse (formerly of Koward) taking over vocal duties. The difference in the vocals makes the band come across more tough and less snotty, but they still stay true to their brand of bouncy, bass-up-front, UK82-style punk that you'd come to expect after hearing their first 7".
NURSE "S/T" 7" (Scavenger of Death Records)
One asskicker of a hardcore 45. 4 tracks, bleak and catchy. A vocalist that lives his lyrics, just Blind Lemon Jefferson. Someone called them funeral hardcore and I heard that in retaliation the singer ACTUALLY killed them.
DD OWEN "Violent Pacifier" 7" (Windian Records)
What happens when SICK THOUGHTS' Drew Owen finds a keyboard and a SCREAMERS record? He adds three more distortion pedals and calls it DD OWEN … The first of many releases under this moniker, Drew's cover of GARY WRONG's "Setting Fire to Your Loft" may make for the best B-side of this entire box…
FLASHER "S/T" Tape (Sister Polygon Records)
The debut EP on cassette from FLASHER. Cassette comes with a digital download code. A bionic electricity from the parallel timespace of 30 years before and since, who is Flasher? What did unnaturally scripted television programs about man as robot have to say about cybernetics? The future is an x-ray machine and this movie is about seeing through your own body. 7 songs to soundtrack what's happened to the city before and since. Flasher is a music group from Washington, DC featuring Taylor Mulitz, Emma Baker and Daniel Saperstein.
ANUSOL "Extra Strength" 7" (Dark Raids Records)
Heavily influenced by the Kyushu City Hard-core scene that was around in the mid 80's Anusol has catchy bass lines and constant drums beats that will play over and over in your head. Top it off with a howl of screams that crashes over the entire sound! It has catchy hooks similar to classics like the "Extermination" or Nuclear Addicts" flexi's but it holds it's own modern identity within the "noize-core" sound.
DISGUISE "System Shock" 7" (Milk Run Records)
Debut 7" from Disguise, with 7 blistering tracks of Japanese influenced hardcore punk, for fans of Execute, Bastard and Kuro. Limited pressing on yellow vinyl 500 only.
CHEENA "Spend the Night With…" LP (Sacred Bones Records)
Don’t sleep. Don’t retreat. Stay a while. Let’s spend the night together. Cheena testify to a long history of New York nights, trading insults and borrowing beer at rooftop parties that began years ago. There’s plenty of New York in this band – Lou Reed’s better glam punches found a jawline or two among them, the heavy handed playing of the Dolls, and that particular manner of NY glam you can hear in Kiss – that’s all in Cheena. Spend The Night With… is a soundtrack to nights where revelry and lust are never isolated from poor decisions and vanity, where the grave sincerity of a bathroom confession explodes into cruelty and hysteria, nights on busy streets or crowded subway cars coloured with elegant ambition and constrained by the practicality of street smarts. – DX
MIKEY ERG "Tentative Decisions" LP (Don Giovanni Records)
Having played on numerous records, accompanying so many other artists on the drums, Tentative Decisions is the first true Mikey Erg solo effort. It's Mikey down to the nuts and bolts. It's also the first album of original material he's released since The Ergs "Upstairs/Downstairs", nearly ten years ago. The familiar, second-generation Ramones worship is in tact, which will satisfy the diehard fans hoping against hope that Mikey will get the old band back together. But there are nuanced touches that make Tentative Decisions wholly unique in the canon of Mikey's prolific output. Moments that touch on almost Celtic and British folk influences in their melodic structure act to refine the blaring down-stroked power chords and driving mid-tempo pop punk drum patterns. Most of the songs were written in the latter half of last year, Mikey says. It came together pretty quickly which I love. Everything about the record fell into place totally organically. For a musician with as many notches in his belt as Mikey Erg, it can be difficult to determine the impact of, and weigh the meaning behind each particular release. But Tentative Decisions is the closest thing you can get to an unaltered Mikey expression, maybe even moreso than some of the most celebrated albums he's released over the years.
SLAPSHOT "Step On It" LP (Taang Records)
In 1988, with the youth-crew movement in full swing, Slapshot was just breaking out up in Boston, MA, fronted by Choke of Negative FX and Last Rites fame. They took the straight edge theme and put a much more negative spin on it than what was going on in New York and Connecticut, and had a decidedly more punk sound too. "Step On It" was the first LP from this now-legendary crew. Now available again on vinyl.
LIFE / INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL "Life Survival" Split 7" (Desolate Records)
Two bands that have refined their respective sounds from noisey punk and metallic grindcore into genre expanding contributions to DIY punk rock. Instinct of Survival (Hamburg, Germany) continue to flavor their stench core influenced punk with a industrial melodic sensibility reminiscent of early Killing Joke. LIFE (Tokyo, Japan) again proove they are the best thing going in crasher crust style punk with three tracks that deliver all the pounding, reverb drenched bombardment you need from the genre while finding room for some amazing melodies and guitar work. Essential material from both bands. Artwork by the Human Warhead Yeap. Screen printed covers.
INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL "North of Nowhere" LP (Desolate Records)
Nine hymns of misanthropic nihilism, unmatched in the present landscape of underground music. It’s got the brutal-as-fuck atmosphere of the early Death Metal ala Autopsy, Entombed or Death, crossed with the aggressive fuck-off riffing of Deviated Instinct, Sepultura or Hellbastard and the miserable, chained to oblivion sound aesthetics of Amebix and Axegrinder. With riffs that nearly fucking snap your neck and a guitar sound that is blunt and bludgeoning, simultaneously raw and cutting, the axe is at the forefront of these songs. The vocals are snarls of loathsome desperation, the production simply immaculate. The drumming is martial and pounding; adding depth and contour to what are essential simple Thrash riffs, yet the key to this is simplicity in execution and complexity in structure and composition. The self titled track is unlike anything I’ve heard in crust for years, whilst the venomous barbarity and razor-sharp guitars of ‘Human?’ and ‘Suffocation’ are simply incredible.
DISCREPANCY "Where the Strength Lies" 7" (Youngblood Records)
Discrepancy's absolute powerhouse of a demo pressed onto vinyl. 4 tracks of intense O.C. Hardcore. This is a one-time pressing strictly limited to 500 copies.
ADVAETA "Death and the Internet" LP (Firetalk Records)
Advaeta is the collaborative project of Brooklyn based musicians Lani Combier-Kapel, Amanda Salane and Sara Fantry. With a complex sound that is heavily melodic, loud and textural, they grind velvet harmonies and lush noise into a landscape that is both evocative and wholly enveloping.
Sheer Mag’s Compilation LP features the Philadelphia rock band’s three seven-inches, released between 2014 and 2016. All twelve songs were recorded onto the same vintage 8-track tape machine, carted to various locations around Philadelphia. The first two were produced in a makeshift studio wedged between two bedrooms in the band’s former South Philly house, while the third came out of a practice space in the Port Richmond neighborhood. Sequenced chronologically, the newly remastered songs reveal a young DIY band finding its sound.
OMEGAS "Power to Exist" LP (Beach Impediment Records)
Much anticipated answer to 2011's 'Blasts of Lunacy,' the Omegas leave off where they picked up, coming back to their personalized vision of the nooks and crannies of early NYHC and proto hardcore cum Darby Crash cum Nollywood prankster at ever more obtuse and challenging angles. The riffs implode and the changes are impossible to follow without a map that probably leads somewhere unpleasant. Even still, the confusion feels like a stroke of luck. The gift is not knowing what you're hearing yet but knowing you've wanted to hear it your whole life. Duck, dive, spit, slam, kill: Makes you go Boom Boom. Flash forward, the power to exist. FFO: getting stop and frisked by the NYPD and having them find a giant lollypop in your otherwise empty bag/wondering who killed Tony Frenchman -Jonah Falco, 2016
KRIMEWATCH "Demo 2016" 7" (Lockin' Out Records)
New from NYC - Japanese punk meets American hardcore; keeping it simple with shouty vocals and driving beats. Demo recording remastered and pressed on vinyl.
KLEENEX / LILIPUT "First Songs" 2xLP (Mississippi Records)
Legendary Swiss punk band from the late '70s. 'You can't dispute Liliput's status as pioneers of feminist art-punk. Along with fellow travelers like The Slits and The Raincoats, this (mostly) female Swiss group took advantage of punk's anything-goes attitude and created jittery, spirited pop that was both in step with the times and completely singular. The early material is a riot of exuberant energy, taking stylistic cues from peers like Gang Of Four and Wire -- propulsive bass, skittering pop rhythms, slashing guitars -- and adding distinctive overlapping vocal patterns, which are sung, shrieked, and hiccuped in three languages and made-up dada slang. More than 20 years on, it still sounds fresh.' --Lisa Gidley. All material has been previously released as Liliput on Kill Rock Stars as a double CD, and a 4 LP box set on Mississippi Records, 1977 1983.First Songs combines all the pre-1982 material. All three Kleenex singles, the first two Liliput 7"'s and all the originally unreleased material prior to Liliput's debut LP.
V/A - "Killed By Deathrock Vol. 2" Compilation LP (Sacred Bones Records)
After the initial blast of punk rock bands made their impression on the youth of the late 1970s, subgenres quickly emerged. Some preferred the faster, louder aggression of hardcore, others the angular danceability of post-punk, some the raw and more personal home-made sound of DIY, and so on. Looking back among and between these genres we now recognize various blends of punk, post-punk, goth rock, industrial, and DIY as “deathrock." In 2014, Sacred Bones Records launched the series Killed By Deathrock to document an entire scene of bands that haven't yet received proper recognition. This is the second volume. The thread that holds these groups together as deathrock bands comes down to their willingness and sometimes compulsion to reveal and explore the darker side of their psyches. Night-soaked dirges of fatality, despair, and horror were rampant, rooted in that sublimity that is found on the edge of the horror genre, as famously developed by Edgar Allan Poe — an edge that relished in misery and openly recognized the inevitable end of any human life.
SIEVEHEAD "Into the Blue" LP (Milk Run Records)
Sievehead come straight out of Sheffield’s The Lughole, a DIY space “run by the punks, for the punks”. With a perfectly honed sound of a band that have been playing together for many years, Sievehead are a relatively new band in Sheffield, but that hasn’t stopped them creating a strong following with a sold out debut cassette on Evil Hoodoo, a 7" on The Lughole's very own label, Kids of The Lughole and a string of packed out shows both in the UK and Europe, and after much anticipation, now have their debut album, Into The Blue coming out 4th December. A joint release for Evil Hoodoo and Milk Run Records and recorded at The Audacious Art Experiment Space by the talented Ben Hunter. With a sound that nods towards some of UK post punk forefathers such as Joy Division / Echo and The Bunnymen and The Cure as well as sounding like they’re straight from the soundtrack to Salad Days alongside bands like Fugazi and Minor Threat, Sievehead have carved their own sound, transferring they’re energetic, raw live sound perfectly onto record.
BREAKDOWN "The 87 Demo" LP (Painkiller Records)
Painkiller and 540 Records have teamed up once again to bring you the other half of the legendary “Breakdown; Both Demos” series: the legendary ’87 Demo. Breakdown’s original 1987 lineup was only together for a few short months, but in that time they produced one of the most legendary and influential recordings in the history of New York Hardcore. Paving the way for every hard and heavy band to follow, Breakdown’s take on hardcore was balanced with the perfect mix of hip hop’s bounce, the power and dynamics of heavy metal, and an unmistakable New York accent laced across a tough, streetwise sound that could only have come out of 1980’s New York City. This LP contains the full 9-song ’87 Demo, released here for the first time on vinyl in its entirety, backed with a crushing live set recorded on WNYU radio’s Crucial Chaos during the summer of 1987. Both recordings have been faithfully restored from original sources and sound better than ever. Includes a full color 12”x24” poster insert with extensive notes and anecdotes from members of the NYHC scene.
NYC HEADHUNTERS "The Rage of the City" 7" (Painkiller Records)
"New Breed" style NYHC has now been entrenched as a stylistic mainstay for hardcore bands longer than the original Lower East Side heyday actually lasted, and it will probably remain that way as long as hardcore continues to be a means of expression for young people. But while plenty of bands continue to dip into that plentiful well, few do it as well as NYC Head Hunters, who have an uncanny knack for knowing the right times to dress things up and when to dumb them down. Comprised of personnel from the Rival Mob, Step Forward, and plenty more, and backed by the expected, period-appropriate production, NYHH debut 7" manages to tap the vein of raw late 80s NYHC without sounding rote or tired 30 years after the fact. Not retro, just timeless.
KRIEGSHOG "S/T" 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Tokyo’s KRIEGSHÖG return with a three new track EP of distorted Japanese hardcore. Catchy bass driven diabolic hardcore with a vocal style that brings to mind “Who the Helpless” era KURO and the LSD flexi as much as the relentless LA’s ICONOCLAST D-Beat attack creating a background soundtrack for the insanity that is Tokyo’s existance. The 7” is housed in a DISCHARGE EP style sleeve with flaps on the outside and thumb cut and comes with a lyric insert. All designed by Bass player Shingo.
MYSTIC INANE "Ep’s of M/I" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Nine track LP collection including MYSTIC INANE's three out of print previous seven inches. Freaked out FLIPPER meets RUDIMENTARY PENI acid punk from New Orleans who channels the weird vibes of earlier SACCHARINE TRUST and battles them against modern distorted hardcore creating a hybrid soundtrack to a bad trip. Whether it is accidental or on purpose MYSTIC INANE are as confusing as they are exciting.
SEMI "Go Viral" 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
A chance meeting of GLOOM, THROBBING GRISTLE and DISORDER. Treading the fine line between genius and parody, London's SEMI deliver four tracks of pure noise hardcore punk which will fit right in between a Crust War or Overthrow band from the mid 90s and a MB or Hermann Nitsch collection. Too clean for the crusties and too noisy for the hardcore scene, SEMI bring performance back to the stage, making sure no-one is ever indifferent to their live antics. Go Viral documents the band at its peak and shows a conceptual band of the kind a city only produces every decade. The record comes housed in a 12 panel CRASS style sleeve designed by singer Ben Fordree giving you just a peak of the trip the band is in.
ULTRA "España Invertebrada" 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Young Barcelona band made up of half ABSURDO and half ANARQUIA VERTICAL members. Their debut EP is pure fire, idealistic hardcore with venom and punch. Sonically clashing the golden years of Spanish or Italian hardcore with early NYHC and even Midwest hardcore while lyrically carrying the torch of anarchist Barcelona bands.
BELGRADO "Obraz" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Obraz is a deconstruction of reality to its basic forms and most primitive elements. The starting point after maximum destruction. A reconstruction towards a new reality. The world of images and a thousand spectacles, fragmented, dismantled and reassembled. Dynamism, rhythm, energy and movement. Creative sense over technique. Reality is a construction that we ourselves create. Belgrado delivers a blend of post-punk that takes its influence from many different styles and combines them together into a new form and rhythm. Carefully constructed sound compositions driven by feelingand the senses. Geometrical figures set in motion. Inspired by the mechanical pulse of minimal synth, the hypnotic sounds of dub, the atmosphere of psychedelic and African music, French cold wave and the post-punk classics. The artwork is a collaboration between Jonathan Sirit, Camila Dunster and Patrycja Proniewska. It includes a 28 pages illustrated booklet and comes in a 350 gsm reverse board sleeve.
ES "Object Relations" 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Object Relations is the debut by Es, four women based between London and Glasgow making 'mutant synth-punk for our dystopian present’ (Jes Skolnik). Tense, bass driven and synth heavy with frantic drumming and cold, direct vocals, the 12" delivers 4 tracks of gelid guitar-less post punk that is equal parts sparse and cosmic. Think of a mix of KUKL with NO DEFENCES jamming with X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND and you may be getting there. The 12” record comes housed in a sleeve designed by Es and comes with a lyric insert and download code.
KRIEGSHOG "S/T" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
The New Wave of Brutality and Hardcore Massacre has arrived. Tokyo punks KRIEGSHÖG are back with their first full length. After 3 7”s that we love at LVEUM they finally went for the album. Thirteen tracks of extremely bass driven hardcore destruction. The recording is relentless, full of energy and distorted. Yet moving from the ultra blown out recording of their earlier output. This is the band’s most dynamic recording so far and in our humble opinion is destined to be a classic and genre defining album. Second press of KRIEGSHÖG LP which we released back in 2010. Released in time for Static Shock Weekend 16 where KRIEGSHÖG will play their first ever European show. This time around the LP comes housed in a heavy duty paste on board sleeve with heavy weight inner sleeve . Overall a top quality packaging for a top quality record.
LOS CRUDOS "Doble LP Discografia" 2xLP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Finally a European version of the long overdue LOS CRUDOS Discography collection. LOS CRUDOS, formed in Chicago's Pilsen neighbourhood in the early 90's, are a Latino punk band with a strong socio-political message and an extremely militant DIY attitude. During their first incarnation, spanning the years 1991 to 1998 the band self-released their own records, printed their own merch, booked their own shows and toured relentlessly around the world. From South America to Japan including a 3 month European tour in the winter of 1996. They spoke to the freaks the outsiders and the minorities and were not afraid of confronting the white middle class punk who reigned supreme during the terrible 90's. A time which will not be remembered for their hardcore output except for a few exceptions, in which CRUDOS are surely included. Their sound, far from being a copycat of whatever flavour of the month was reigning at the time was heavy rooted in the golden years of European and Latino American ferocious hardcore punk. With bands as IMPACT, WRETCHED, OLHO SECO, TERVEET KADET or MASACRE 68 as obvious influences in a time when the simple mention of any of those bands (or any non English speaking bands really) was usually met with a laugh or a joke. They sang in Spanish, with aggression and conviction and that made their message spread out widely, reaching thousands of Spanish speaking punks both in Latino America and Spain as well as inside USA where third generation Latino kids surely were missing a voice within the punk scene. The band split up in 1998 after a really intense year of touring and reformed in 2008.
JANITOR SCUM "S/T" LP (Lumpy Records)
Very sick one woman group outta Calgary from Arielle, the guitarist of Glitter. Punchy new wave punk with a drum machine. Listen to a song here: https://soundcloud.com/
LOWEST FORM, THE "Personal Space" LP (Iron Lung Records)
The second album from UK hardcore engine The Lowest Form, Personal Space sees the band cutting through a comedown fug of feedback, sharp butterflyknife guitars flashing deadly over a wasteground rubble of noise. Songs drawn up from discord, songs of marshalled cacophony, coils of scritching guitars break apart and reform, coalescing around insistent basslines and heavy drumbeats, before splintering again. It's hardcore constructed from textured noise as much as from breakdowns and riffs, rumbling infectious chants emerging from the wavering clamor, the vile keening of consciousness's half-known edges, noise in the grain of it all, noise as bedrock, an abrasive acid bath of fuzz, susurration and machinewhirr. SMASH MY FUCKIN' HEAD AGAINST THE WALL" is the line that opens it up, rising out of Interplanetary Bad Boy's hissing swell. Driven through the album are anguished explorations of interior/exterior limits, whirling around viciously in the grubby borders of your skull, spinning hopelessly in the cosmic of the aether, untethered, higher than the sky but way down in the muck. From Gak Attack's claustrophobic pogo or Last Smash's drawling thump to Star Slammers manic tumble and Dread Future's rolling barrage, The Lowest Form have brought together another LP of murdered-out panicattack punk, lithe and unleashed, born of bad vibes and background radiation, an album at once uncomfortably close and fully heavy." -Joe Briggs
KLOUT "Demo" 7" (Not For You Recordings)
Brand new band out of South Florida. Think 86 MENTALITY with some d-beats here and there also taking cues from classic 80's hardcore bands. Klout is hard hitting and in your face. Pick up a tape before they're all gone.
FLASHER "S/T" LP (Sister Polygon Records)
Vinyl version of the debut EP from Washington, DC's FLASHER. A bionic electricity from the parallel timespace of 30 years before and since, who is Flasher? What did unnaturally scripted television programs about man as robot have to say about cybernetics? The future is an x-ray machine and this movie is about seeing through your own body. 7 songs to soundtrack what's happened to the city before and since. Flasher is a music group from Washington, DC featuring Taylor Mulitz, Emma Baker and Daniel Saperstein.
ERIK NERVOUS "Teen Distortion Art Junk Music" 7" (Neck Chop Records)
Remember what it was like being a bored teenager? The awkward feelings of being frustrated and anxious all the time. Most of us just took it out on our friends and parents, not Erik Nervous. The self-described “Loner with a four track” lays it all out in his music. His spastic jerky delivery (on all the instruments he plays on this 7”) combined with his apprehensive vocals are the perfect combination! Punk is built on this formula but rarely do we have somebody like Erik to execute it in the way it should be done. Building on what he started with the Warm Ratio 7”, this EP certifies that Erik is right where others strive to be. Don’t snooze on this one!
BETA BOYS "After Dark" 7" (Neck Chop Records)
Finally, it’s here! More new music from the Beta Boys! After a standout 7” on Eat The Life/Lumpy Records and some demos the world has been thirsting for more. Beta Boys have a sound that is a call back to when punk was fresh without sounding like a boring rehash band. All of their songs have a rhythmic echo that stays in your head for days after hearing it. The inconsistent sloppy delivery over a classic mid-tempo 80s punk sound make for an excellent combination. This band fills all the void in your records right now.
WOODBOT "Krang Gang" LP (Neck Chop Records)
WOODBOOT'S ON THE STREET AGAIN!!!! There is no better way to introduce the Neck Chop Records label than to do it with a limited vinyl pressing of the first WOODBOOT demo cassette from 2014. WOODBOOT have been compared to The Ramones and The Spits but they are much more than that. Each song is a one to two minute blast impregnating your ears with sing-along rage! This demo serves as the foundation to WOODBOOT's takeover of your turntable - then the world! This demo was followed up by the catchy "Crime Time" LP on Erste Theke Tontraeger and a brilliant 7" on Total Punk (both available in the shop as well). Get off my street motherfucker!
ACRYLICS "S/T" 12" (Neck Chop Records)
Acrylics change the hardcore game with their sound while everybody else is trying to sound the same. There is a fun sound brewing in the bay area right now and Acrylics are at the forefront of that! I couldn't be more proud and excited to release this S/T EP on a one-sided 12". Previously released on cassette on Discontinuous Innovation in a run of 150 that were gone in a blink. We've now had it remastered for vinyl by the great Will Killingsworth and put it on a one sided 12". Very proud of this one!
PMS 84 "S/T (2nd)" 7" (Nightmare Records)
2nd proper vinyl release from this Portland-based hardcore punk band featuring 4 brand new tracks! On this new EP, PMS 84 has gone through a lineup change with Jesse (formerly of Koward) taking over vocal duties. The difference in the vocals makes the band come across more tough and less snotty, but they still stay true to their brand of bouncy, bass-up-front, UK82-style punk that you'd come to expect after hearing their first 7".
NURSE "S/T" 7" (Scavenger of Death Records)
One asskicker of a hardcore 45. 4 tracks, bleak and catchy. A vocalist that lives his lyrics, just Blind Lemon Jefferson. Someone called them funeral hardcore and I heard that in retaliation the singer ACTUALLY killed them.
DD OWEN "Violent Pacifier" 7" (Windian Records)
What happens when SICK THOUGHTS' Drew Owen finds a keyboard and a SCREAMERS record? He adds three more distortion pedals and calls it DD OWEN … The first of many releases under this moniker, Drew's cover of GARY WRONG's "Setting Fire to Your Loft" may make for the best B-side of this entire box…
FLASHER "S/T" Tape (Sister Polygon Records)
The debut EP on cassette from FLASHER. Cassette comes with a digital download code. A bionic electricity from the parallel timespace of 30 years before and since, who is Flasher? What did unnaturally scripted television programs about man as robot have to say about cybernetics? The future is an x-ray machine and this movie is about seeing through your own body. 7 songs to soundtrack what's happened to the city before and since. Flasher is a music group from Washington, DC featuring Taylor Mulitz, Emma Baker and Daniel Saperstein.
ANUSOL "Extra Strength" 7" (Dark Raids Records)
Heavily influenced by the Kyushu City Hard-core scene that was around in the mid 80's Anusol has catchy bass lines and constant drums beats that will play over and over in your head. Top it off with a howl of screams that crashes over the entire sound! It has catchy hooks similar to classics like the "Extermination" or Nuclear Addicts" flexi's but it holds it's own modern identity within the "noize-core" sound.
DISGUISE "System Shock" 7" (Milk Run Records)
Debut 7" from Disguise, with 7 blistering tracks of Japanese influenced hardcore punk, for fans of Execute, Bastard and Kuro. Limited pressing on yellow vinyl 500 only.
CHEENA "Spend the Night With…" LP (Sacred Bones Records)
Don’t sleep. Don’t retreat. Stay a while. Let’s spend the night together. Cheena testify to a long history of New York nights, trading insults and borrowing beer at rooftop parties that began years ago. There’s plenty of New York in this band – Lou Reed’s better glam punches found a jawline or two among them, the heavy handed playing of the Dolls, and that particular manner of NY glam you can hear in Kiss – that’s all in Cheena. Spend The Night With… is a soundtrack to nights where revelry and lust are never isolated from poor decisions and vanity, where the grave sincerity of a bathroom confession explodes into cruelty and hysteria, nights on busy streets or crowded subway cars coloured with elegant ambition and constrained by the practicality of street smarts. – DX
MIKEY ERG "Tentative Decisions" LP (Don Giovanni Records)
Having played on numerous records, accompanying so many other artists on the drums, Tentative Decisions is the first true Mikey Erg solo effort. It's Mikey down to the nuts and bolts. It's also the first album of original material he's released since The Ergs "Upstairs/Downstairs", nearly ten years ago. The familiar, second-generation Ramones worship is in tact, which will satisfy the diehard fans hoping against hope that Mikey will get the old band back together. But there are nuanced touches that make Tentative Decisions wholly unique in the canon of Mikey's prolific output. Moments that touch on almost Celtic and British folk influences in their melodic structure act to refine the blaring down-stroked power chords and driving mid-tempo pop punk drum patterns. Most of the songs were written in the latter half of last year, Mikey says. It came together pretty quickly which I love. Everything about the record fell into place totally organically. For a musician with as many notches in his belt as Mikey Erg, it can be difficult to determine the impact of, and weigh the meaning behind each particular release. But Tentative Decisions is the closest thing you can get to an unaltered Mikey expression, maybe even moreso than some of the most celebrated albums he's released over the years.
SLAPSHOT "Step On It" LP (Taang Records)
In 1988, with the youth-crew movement in full swing, Slapshot was just breaking out up in Boston, MA, fronted by Choke of Negative FX and Last Rites fame. They took the straight edge theme and put a much more negative spin on it than what was going on in New York and Connecticut, and had a decidedly more punk sound too. "Step On It" was the first LP from this now-legendary crew. Now available again on vinyl.
LIFE / INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL "Life Survival" Split 7" (Desolate Records)
Two bands that have refined their respective sounds from noisey punk and metallic grindcore into genre expanding contributions to DIY punk rock. Instinct of Survival (Hamburg, Germany) continue to flavor their stench core influenced punk with a industrial melodic sensibility reminiscent of early Killing Joke. LIFE (Tokyo, Japan) again proove they are the best thing going in crasher crust style punk with three tracks that deliver all the pounding, reverb drenched bombardment you need from the genre while finding room for some amazing melodies and guitar work. Essential material from both bands. Artwork by the Human Warhead Yeap. Screen printed covers.
INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL "North of Nowhere" LP (Desolate Records)
Nine hymns of misanthropic nihilism, unmatched in the present landscape of underground music. It’s got the brutal-as-fuck atmosphere of the early Death Metal ala Autopsy, Entombed or Death, crossed with the aggressive fuck-off riffing of Deviated Instinct, Sepultura or Hellbastard and the miserable, chained to oblivion sound aesthetics of Amebix and Axegrinder. With riffs that nearly fucking snap your neck and a guitar sound that is blunt and bludgeoning, simultaneously raw and cutting, the axe is at the forefront of these songs. The vocals are snarls of loathsome desperation, the production simply immaculate. The drumming is martial and pounding; adding depth and contour to what are essential simple Thrash riffs, yet the key to this is simplicity in execution and complexity in structure and composition. The self titled track is unlike anything I’ve heard in crust for years, whilst the venomous barbarity and razor-sharp guitars of ‘Human?’ and ‘Suffocation’ are simply incredible.
DISCREPANCY "Where the Strength Lies" 7" (Youngblood Records)
Discrepancy's absolute powerhouse of a demo pressed onto vinyl. 4 tracks of intense O.C. Hardcore. This is a one-time pressing strictly limited to 500 copies.
ADVAETA "Death and the Internet" LP (Firetalk Records)
Advaeta is the collaborative project of Brooklyn based musicians Lani Combier-Kapel, Amanda Salane and Sara Fantry. With a complex sound that is heavily melodic, loud and textural, they grind velvet harmonies and lush noise into a landscape that is both evocative and wholly enveloping.
EXCEL "The Joke's On You" LP (Southern Lord Records)
Originally released via Caroline Records, and produced by Randy Burns (Megadeth, Kreator, Possessed), The Joke’s On You, is the band’s second full-length which saw wide acclaim from thrash, punk, metal and “skate rock” circles (members have been known to have shared a ramp with pros Christian Hosoi, Eric Dressen and Tony Alva). Drawing influence from a diverse range of artists including Black Sabbath, Black Flag, Jimi Hendrix, and early era Corrosion of Conformity, people often talk of ‘crossover’ genres but none quite do it as exceptionally well as Excel. The Southern Lord reissue, remastered by Brad Boatright, includes the 12 tracks featured on the original CD edition. The closing track 'Blaze Some Hate' was not on the original album (it was released as a 12" single via Caroline) , it will appear on this LP reissue/remaster. This isn’t the first time Southern Lord have documented the importance of Excel either with their 2014 reissue of the band’s first album Split Image.
DESECHABLES "La Maqueta" LP (Munster Records)
Desechables formed around 1980 in Vallirana, a village in the Barcelona suburbs where three friends got together to create one of Spain's most visceral and dirtiest primitive rock groups: Tere (screams), Miguel (guitar), and Dei Pei (snare and tom). Tere was 14, Dei Pei was 17, and Miguel was the oldest of the three at 22. Without any musical knowledge, Miguel established a unique personal guitar style that would define the Desechable sound. Pei recalls, "Our way of rehearsing was like eternal zeroes, like mantras... Tere was especially amazing because Miguel was constantly having a go at her; come on baby, come on, come on. He got the shyness and childishness out of her teenage beauty, so blonde and so perfect." Jaime Gonzalo, music journalist and the band's friend, remembers the first time he saw them live: "It was spectacular. Spectacular in the sense that it was still a mirror copy of The Cramps and it didn't go beyond that ... But Miguel's guitar was hellish. They used their limitations well and achieved great chemistry." One day Pei went by the office of Ernest Casals, who ran the independent label Flor y Nata Records and wrote for the Radio Carolina fanzine, to tell him that the fanzine was shit, and left a low-fi demo on his desk with three tracks Desechables had recorded in a dubbing studio. The cassette was sent to Jesús Ordovás, a Radio 3 presenter in Madrid, who broadcast Desechables nationwide for the first time when he played "Fuera de la ley." Casals persuaded his partners that launching Desechables would be beneficial, and the first Desechables demo came out in 1982 (in an edition of 750) as the first release of the Anarchi Records sublabel, run by brothers Ferran Sahún and Joni Destruye and mainly conceived to release cassettes. It was recorded in just one evening without any kind of production, in a gloomy Barcelona studio in October of 1982. "There was a total connection the whole evening, we all had a great time and Miguel gave us a lot of confidence... We felt at home. From beginning to end, everything came out seamlessly," remembers Tere. The demo became the best Spanish garage punk artifact from the '80s and the best legacy from the original Desechables trio. This first vinyl edition includes "El peor dios," recorded at the same session but not featured on the original cassette.
GRATITUDE ZINE Issue #2
Hardcore zine for the hardcore. Featuring interviews with Red Death, Intent, and Depths of Reality - full size 36 page zine jam packed with HC goodness paying homage to the past several decades of HC greats, while keeping things relevant with some modern day hitters. The review section features some in depth (and fairly lengthy) reviews of everything from the Warzone S/T LP to the A-Team LP to the Give LP. Definitely reminds me a lot of a zine I would have picked up at a Posi-Numbers fest in the early-00s (lots of discussion that brings me back to what I'd frequently see on the Rev and Mullet boards, plus there is a fair amount of Mental/Lockin Out coverage in this as well). A great cross section of HC for the ages, keeping with the lineage of zines like Schism, Hardware, Contention, Town of Hardcore, or more recently Hashtag Hardcore or Mosher's Delight. Highly recommended for both scene newcomers and hc lifers alike.
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #404 - January 2017
Maximum Rocknroll #404, the January 2017 issue is here! In light of the impending Trump presidency, we have a very useful guide to basic cybersecurity, revolutionary reading lists, Q&A’s from Transgress Fest, and more. We have photo spreads from Static Shock Fest and the current Mexico City punk scene, plus interviews with Copenhagen/worldwide queer art punks PRISON, Kansas City freaks PHANTOM HEAD, and everyone’s favorite Berlin-based phenomenon DIÄT. Dublin post-punkers the BLOW INS talk about carving out space for Polish punks in a new country, Baltimore’s QUITTER share the trials and tribulations of gas station food and sweaty jumpsuits, and Oakland’s HARD LEFT can’t decide if they are hard mod or utopian Oi! (maybe Turbo can help?). It all wraps up with Canadian raw punk band PARASYTES, a joint interview with LAKES and TOL (two Australian bands that share members), and Scottish vegan straightedge riot grrrls BRATAKUS. Get it today!
PRIMAL RITE "Complex Life of Passion" Tape (Pop Wig Records)
Tape version on Pop Wig Records also features two additional tracks from Primal Rite's debut EP.The second offering from San Francisco's PRIMAL RITE. Following up an impressive debut single, "Complex Life of Passion" delivers a barrage of pure sonic brutality, drawing on an array of influences ranging from classic thrash and OSDM to Japanese and Clevo Hardcore. From the EP's looming intro to its pulverizing close, Primal Rite manage to bring nothing less than sheer hardcore devastation from start to finish, firmly asserting their position as a band to watch for in 2017.
V/A - YOUNGBLOOD RECORDS 2016 Sampler Tape (Youngblood Records)
New sampler tape from YOUNGBLOOD RECORDS featuring tracks from both current YB roster STAND OFF and DISCREPANCY, plus upcoming bands DC DISORDER and LINE OF SITE.
B.D. Demo 2016 Tape
B.D. is from the Bay Area and features members of Midnite Snaxxx and Baus. B.D. had a song on last year's Typical Girls comp LP, which was compiled by Camylle, B.D.'s singer, and released by Emotional Response. B.D. has also released records under the names Bad Daddies and The Reynolds Family.
JOINT D "Intelligence" Tape (Scavenger of Death Records)
The third and finest full length from Joint Damage. Ten sonic punksplorations charting the growth of the manimal, the withering of the state, and humanity's collective hurtling towards planar emigration. 125 copies on tape.
NAG "S/T" Tape (Scavenger of Death Records)
7 tracks from the songwriting machine behind Predator & GHB, marching into new territory with the same Spartan kit. Dark, gritty, and suffering from terminal aggression, this tape plays like the fait accompli of a lifetime of anxious isolation. Comes with a digital download.
WASTE Demo Tape (Get Up and Fight Records)
Straight Edge from Sweden FFO youth of today, urban waste, straight ahead, impact unit etc.
GOVERNESS "S/T" Tape (Sister Polygon Records)
Mothers claim formidable space in rock and roll's greater body of subject matter (from Outkast's "Ms Jackson" to Danzig's "Mother" to the Shirelles "Mama Said" to Can's "Mother Sky") but rarely do the mothers get to speak for themselves. Governess' self-titled 8 song tape is a portrait of the traditional nuclear family through a lens often erased in the greater sociological landscape. What does it look like to be responsible for the unwaged labor of childcare and partnership? "We did not see our experiences being represented in any music we came across and wanted to create an honest and real representation," Says drummer Erin McCarley. She adds, "[The songs] may sound poppy and have some sweet melodies, but they are dark and come from a taboo place that most women and mothers do not speak of even amongst themselves." McCarley, Kieca Mahoney (bass) and Kim Weeks (guitar) live in the same neighborhood with their families. They met while organizing a parent-run cooperative preschool for their children and decided to write songs together. "Science was my savior until I turned nine," the trio begins on "Broken Glass." "I thought I wanted a test tube baby." McCarley's musical work has contributed much in the ways of vivid lyricism and sonic depth to Washington, DC's underground catalogue (see: Hand Grenade Job, Pygmy Lush, Hey Girl) but Governess is, collaboratively speaking, arguably her riskiest project yet. Of her bandmates, she says: "I think it's punk as fuck that Kim and Kieca were willing to pick up an instrument and join a band at this point in their lives, having not done something like this before." This kind of attitude and explorative musicianship is rarely paired with the insights of adulthood, let alone through such a socially prohibited narrator as a mother voicing misgivings, rage, desires and sadness. Weeks' guitar is sparse and sharp recalling inventiveness of projects in which the instrument isn't a given, but a choice. Mahoney's bass is similarly taut and responsible for many of the song's hooks. My favorite track is the last, as there is something about the chorus of "let 'em go, fucking runaways, they can't ever understand this feeling" that rings infinitely more true than if it were sung by teenagers in love. Governess is probably not interested in the punker-than-thou olympics, but would likely take home a prize.
KAG "EP A" Tape (Sister Polygon Records)
KAG 'EP A' is a 15 minute EP of music inspired by weird suburbia, formidable famous women, and the 1947 film Black Narcissus. KAG is a solo moniker for Katie Alice Greer (Priests) who began writing and recording these songs at home after moving outside of a city for the first time in a decade.
RUBBLE Demo Tape (Dark Raids Records)
Brand new band out of Portland, OR debut demo of UK82 / Anarcho inspired punk! Rubble has a fantastic sound with songs that will have you instantly singing along. Think somewhere in between The Expelled, Action Pact mixed with the first Honey Bane 7". UK82 in 2k16!
SCYTHE Demo Tape (Dark Raids Records)
New band from the Bay area playing gruff hardcore-punk. Scythe's sound is something like the grim vocals of Tranquilizer or Zouo with the stompy corroded sound of United Mutation & Gasmask.
SCHIAVI "Locked Inside E.P." Tape
New tape from Richmond, VA's SCHIAVI. Ripping hc punk.
UNKNOWN THREAT, THE 2016 Demo Tape
New DC hcpunk band.
LAUGHING BOY Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
New band featuring members of Koszmar, Disgusti, Oaf and others. Mix of Swedish d-beat with aggressive US hardcore.
CRUMB Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
New band made up of young bloods who have also done time in Oaf. Mid-temp hardcore but with almost a spacey post-punk vibe at times.
WATCHDOG Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
Members of Goms changed their name to Watchdog to reflect their newer musical direction. heavier and angrier than the Goms EP that came out earlier this year.
POLICY OF TRUTH Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
Another new band that have played a handful of excellent shows so far. stripped down east coast inspired hardcore.
V/A "Dangerhouse Vol. 2" Tape (Burger Records)
Compilation of early DANGERHOUSE RECORDS singles, featuring Randoms, Weirdos, Black Randy & The Metrosquad, Deadbeats, Eyes, Dils, Avengers, Rhino 39, Bags, Alley Cats, Howard Werth & X. 12 tracks.
MEAN JEANS "On Mars" Tape (Burger Records)
Portland's premier party punks The Mean Jeans return with their long-awaited follow up to 2009's Are You Serious! This is a different album, though, more mid-tempo catchier, and poppier (but less "pop punk" if you know what we mean) than their debut. In addition to the standard 3 piece instrumentation, Mean Jeans On Mars also features, at various times, acoustic guitar (!), keyboards (!), drum machines (!), empty Jaeger bottles (!) and boxes of macaroni (!) played as extra percussion. Oh and it also features the debut of new member Jr. Jeans on bass! (Howie Doodat is busy tearing up Portland in the Suicide Notes!) This is a fantastic, exhilarating summertime pop album, so down a couple of jaegy bombs and get ready to moonwalk into the unknown with the Mean Jeans!
Restocks for December 16, 2016:
ANTIDOTE "Thou Shalt Not Kill" 7"
BAD BRAINS "Pay to Cum" 7"
BIG EYES "Almost Famous" Tape
LEMONHEADS "Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners" 7"
NEGATIVE FX "VFW" 7"
PENETRATORS, THE "Teenage Lifestyle" 7"
RIXE "Coups et Blessures" 7"
RIXE "Les Nerfs A Vif" 7"
WETBRAIN "S/T" 7"
ZERO "Paradox" 7"
ANXIETY "S/T" 12"
BATTALION OF SAINTS "Second Coming" LP
BELGRADO "Siglo XXI" LP
BIG BOYS "Fun Fun Fun" LP
CHAIN OF STRENGTH "The One Thing That Still Holds True" LP
DARK THOUGHTS "S/T" LP
DISCLOSE "Yesterday's Fairytale, Tomorrow's Nightmare" LP
FLEX, THE "Wild Stabs in the Dark" LP
G-GAS "Generation Gas" LP
JUANITA Y LOS FEOS "Nueva Numancia" LP
LATISHIA'S SKULL DRAWING "Romanticized" 12"
LEEWAY "Born to Expire" LP
LEEWAY "Desperate Measures" LP
PART 1 "Funeral Parade" LP
POISON IDEA "Record Collectors are Pretentious Assholes" LP
PRIESTS "Bodies and Control and Money and Power" LP
SIDE BY SIDE "You're Only Young Once" LP
SLANT 6 "Soda Pop Rip Off" LP
V/A - "Killed by Deathrock Vol. 1" Compilation LP
V/A - "New York City Hardcore: The Way it Is" Compilation LP
V/A "Flex Your Head" Compilation LP
ZERO "S/T" LP
Originally released via Caroline Records, and produced by Randy Burns (Megadeth, Kreator, Possessed), The Joke’s On You, is the band’s second full-length which saw wide acclaim from thrash, punk, metal and “skate rock” circles (members have been known to have shared a ramp with pros Christian Hosoi, Eric Dressen and Tony Alva). Drawing influence from a diverse range of artists including Black Sabbath, Black Flag, Jimi Hendrix, and early era Corrosion of Conformity, people often talk of ‘crossover’ genres but none quite do it as exceptionally well as Excel. The Southern Lord reissue, remastered by Brad Boatright, includes the 12 tracks featured on the original CD edition. The closing track 'Blaze Some Hate' was not on the original album (it was released as a 12" single via Caroline) , it will appear on this LP reissue/remaster. This isn’t the first time Southern Lord have documented the importance of Excel either with their 2014 reissue of the band’s first album Split Image.
DESECHABLES "La Maqueta" LP (Munster Records)
Desechables formed around 1980 in Vallirana, a village in the Barcelona suburbs where three friends got together to create one of Spain's most visceral and dirtiest primitive rock groups: Tere (screams), Miguel (guitar), and Dei Pei (snare and tom). Tere was 14, Dei Pei was 17, and Miguel was the oldest of the three at 22. Without any musical knowledge, Miguel established a unique personal guitar style that would define the Desechable sound. Pei recalls, "Our way of rehearsing was like eternal zeroes, like mantras... Tere was especially amazing because Miguel was constantly having a go at her; come on baby, come on, come on. He got the shyness and childishness out of her teenage beauty, so blonde and so perfect." Jaime Gonzalo, music journalist and the band's friend, remembers the first time he saw them live: "It was spectacular. Spectacular in the sense that it was still a mirror copy of The Cramps and it didn't go beyond that ... But Miguel's guitar was hellish. They used their limitations well and achieved great chemistry." One day Pei went by the office of Ernest Casals, who ran the independent label Flor y Nata Records and wrote for the Radio Carolina fanzine, to tell him that the fanzine was shit, and left a low-fi demo on his desk with three tracks Desechables had recorded in a dubbing studio. The cassette was sent to Jesús Ordovás, a Radio 3 presenter in Madrid, who broadcast Desechables nationwide for the first time when he played "Fuera de la ley." Casals persuaded his partners that launching Desechables would be beneficial, and the first Desechables demo came out in 1982 (in an edition of 750) as the first release of the Anarchi Records sublabel, run by brothers Ferran Sahún and Joni Destruye and mainly conceived to release cassettes. It was recorded in just one evening without any kind of production, in a gloomy Barcelona studio in October of 1982. "There was a total connection the whole evening, we all had a great time and Miguel gave us a lot of confidence... We felt at home. From beginning to end, everything came out seamlessly," remembers Tere. The demo became the best Spanish garage punk artifact from the '80s and the best legacy from the original Desechables trio. This first vinyl edition includes "El peor dios," recorded at the same session but not featured on the original cassette.
GRATITUDE ZINE Issue #2
Hardcore zine for the hardcore. Featuring interviews with Red Death, Intent, and Depths of Reality - full size 36 page zine jam packed with HC goodness paying homage to the past several decades of HC greats, while keeping things relevant with some modern day hitters. The review section features some in depth (and fairly lengthy) reviews of everything from the Warzone S/T LP to the A-Team LP to the Give LP. Definitely reminds me a lot of a zine I would have picked up at a Posi-Numbers fest in the early-00s (lots of discussion that brings me back to what I'd frequently see on the Rev and Mullet boards, plus there is a fair amount of Mental/Lockin Out coverage in this as well). A great cross section of HC for the ages, keeping with the lineage of zines like Schism, Hardware, Contention, Town of Hardcore, or more recently Hashtag Hardcore or Mosher's Delight. Highly recommended for both scene newcomers and hc lifers alike.
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #404 - January 2017
Maximum Rocknroll #404, the January 2017 issue is here! In light of the impending Trump presidency, we have a very useful guide to basic cybersecurity, revolutionary reading lists, Q&A’s from Transgress Fest, and more. We have photo spreads from Static Shock Fest and the current Mexico City punk scene, plus interviews with Copenhagen/worldwide queer art punks PRISON, Kansas City freaks PHANTOM HEAD, and everyone’s favorite Berlin-based phenomenon DIÄT. Dublin post-punkers the BLOW INS talk about carving out space for Polish punks in a new country, Baltimore’s QUITTER share the trials and tribulations of gas station food and sweaty jumpsuits, and Oakland’s HARD LEFT can’t decide if they are hard mod or utopian Oi! (maybe Turbo can help?). It all wraps up with Canadian raw punk band PARASYTES, a joint interview with LAKES and TOL (two Australian bands that share members), and Scottish vegan straightedge riot grrrls BRATAKUS. Get it today!
PRIMAL RITE "Complex Life of Passion" Tape (Pop Wig Records)
Tape version on Pop Wig Records also features two additional tracks from Primal Rite's debut EP.The second offering from San Francisco's PRIMAL RITE. Following up an impressive debut single, "Complex Life of Passion" delivers a barrage of pure sonic brutality, drawing on an array of influences ranging from classic thrash and OSDM to Japanese and Clevo Hardcore. From the EP's looming intro to its pulverizing close, Primal Rite manage to bring nothing less than sheer hardcore devastation from start to finish, firmly asserting their position as a band to watch for in 2017.
V/A - YOUNGBLOOD RECORDS 2016 Sampler Tape (Youngblood Records)
New sampler tape from YOUNGBLOOD RECORDS featuring tracks from both current YB roster STAND OFF and DISCREPANCY, plus upcoming bands DC DISORDER and LINE OF SITE.
B.D. Demo 2016 Tape
B.D. is from the Bay Area and features members of Midnite Snaxxx and Baus. B.D. had a song on last year's Typical Girls comp LP, which was compiled by Camylle, B.D.'s singer, and released by Emotional Response. B.D. has also released records under the names Bad Daddies and The Reynolds Family.
JOINT D "Intelligence" Tape (Scavenger of Death Records)
The third and finest full length from Joint Damage. Ten sonic punksplorations charting the growth of the manimal, the withering of the state, and humanity's collective hurtling towards planar emigration. 125 copies on tape.
NAG "S/T" Tape (Scavenger of Death Records)
7 tracks from the songwriting machine behind Predator & GHB, marching into new territory with the same Spartan kit. Dark, gritty, and suffering from terminal aggression, this tape plays like the fait accompli of a lifetime of anxious isolation. Comes with a digital download.
WASTE Demo Tape (Get Up and Fight Records)
Straight Edge from Sweden FFO youth of today, urban waste, straight ahead, impact unit etc.
GOVERNESS "S/T" Tape (Sister Polygon Records)
Mothers claim formidable space in rock and roll's greater body of subject matter (from Outkast's "Ms Jackson" to Danzig's "Mother" to the Shirelles "Mama Said" to Can's "Mother Sky") but rarely do the mothers get to speak for themselves. Governess' self-titled 8 song tape is a portrait of the traditional nuclear family through a lens often erased in the greater sociological landscape. What does it look like to be responsible for the unwaged labor of childcare and partnership? "We did not see our experiences being represented in any music we came across and wanted to create an honest and real representation," Says drummer Erin McCarley. She adds, "[The songs] may sound poppy and have some sweet melodies, but they are dark and come from a taboo place that most women and mothers do not speak of even amongst themselves." McCarley, Kieca Mahoney (bass) and Kim Weeks (guitar) live in the same neighborhood with their families. They met while organizing a parent-run cooperative preschool for their children and decided to write songs together. "Science was my savior until I turned nine," the trio begins on "Broken Glass." "I thought I wanted a test tube baby." McCarley's musical work has contributed much in the ways of vivid lyricism and sonic depth to Washington, DC's underground catalogue (see: Hand Grenade Job, Pygmy Lush, Hey Girl) but Governess is, collaboratively speaking, arguably her riskiest project yet. Of her bandmates, she says: "I think it's punk as fuck that Kim and Kieca were willing to pick up an instrument and join a band at this point in their lives, having not done something like this before." This kind of attitude and explorative musicianship is rarely paired with the insights of adulthood, let alone through such a socially prohibited narrator as a mother voicing misgivings, rage, desires and sadness. Weeks' guitar is sparse and sharp recalling inventiveness of projects in which the instrument isn't a given, but a choice. Mahoney's bass is similarly taut and responsible for many of the song's hooks. My favorite track is the last, as there is something about the chorus of "let 'em go, fucking runaways, they can't ever understand this feeling" that rings infinitely more true than if it were sung by teenagers in love. Governess is probably not interested in the punker-than-thou olympics, but would likely take home a prize.
KAG "EP A" Tape (Sister Polygon Records)
KAG 'EP A' is a 15 minute EP of music inspired by weird suburbia, formidable famous women, and the 1947 film Black Narcissus. KAG is a solo moniker for Katie Alice Greer (Priests) who began writing and recording these songs at home after moving outside of a city for the first time in a decade.
RUBBLE Demo Tape (Dark Raids Records)
Brand new band out of Portland, OR debut demo of UK82 / Anarcho inspired punk! Rubble has a fantastic sound with songs that will have you instantly singing along. Think somewhere in between The Expelled, Action Pact mixed with the first Honey Bane 7". UK82 in 2k16!
SCYTHE Demo Tape (Dark Raids Records)
New band from the Bay area playing gruff hardcore-punk. Scythe's sound is something like the grim vocals of Tranquilizer or Zouo with the stompy corroded sound of United Mutation & Gasmask.
SCHIAVI "Locked Inside E.P." Tape
New tape from Richmond, VA's SCHIAVI. Ripping hc punk.
UNKNOWN THREAT, THE 2016 Demo Tape
New DC hcpunk band.
LAUGHING BOY Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
New band featuring members of Koszmar, Disgusti, Oaf and others. Mix of Swedish d-beat with aggressive US hardcore.
CRUMB Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
New band made up of young bloods who have also done time in Oaf. Mid-temp hardcore but with almost a spacey post-punk vibe at times.
WATCHDOG Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
Members of Goms changed their name to Watchdog to reflect their newer musical direction. heavier and angrier than the Goms EP that came out earlier this year.
POLICY OF TRUTH Demo Tape (Slow Death Records)
Another new band that have played a handful of excellent shows so far. stripped down east coast inspired hardcore.
V/A "Dangerhouse Vol. 2" Tape (Burger Records)
Compilation of early DANGERHOUSE RECORDS singles, featuring Randoms, Weirdos, Black Randy & The Metrosquad, Deadbeats, Eyes, Dils, Avengers, Rhino 39, Bags, Alley Cats, Howard Werth & X. 12 tracks.
MEAN JEANS "On Mars" Tape (Burger Records)
Portland's premier party punks The Mean Jeans return with their long-awaited follow up to 2009's Are You Serious! This is a different album, though, more mid-tempo catchier, and poppier (but less "pop punk" if you know what we mean) than their debut. In addition to the standard 3 piece instrumentation, Mean Jeans On Mars also features, at various times, acoustic guitar (!), keyboards (!), drum machines (!), empty Jaeger bottles (!) and boxes of macaroni (!) played as extra percussion. Oh and it also features the debut of new member Jr. Jeans on bass! (Howie Doodat is busy tearing up Portland in the Suicide Notes!) This is a fantastic, exhilarating summertime pop album, so down a couple of jaegy bombs and get ready to moonwalk into the unknown with the Mean Jeans!
Restocks for December 16, 2016:
ANTIDOTE "Thou Shalt Not Kill" 7"
BAD BRAINS "Pay to Cum" 7"
BIG EYES "Almost Famous" Tape
LEMONHEADS "Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners" 7"
NEGATIVE FX "VFW" 7"
PENETRATORS, THE "Teenage Lifestyle" 7"
RIXE "Coups et Blessures" 7"
RIXE "Les Nerfs A Vif" 7"
WETBRAIN "S/T" 7"
ZERO "Paradox" 7"
ANXIETY "S/T" 12"
BATTALION OF SAINTS "Second Coming" LP
BELGRADO "Siglo XXI" LP
BIG BOYS "Fun Fun Fun" LP
CHAIN OF STRENGTH "The One Thing That Still Holds True" LP
DARK THOUGHTS "S/T" LP
DISCLOSE "Yesterday's Fairytale, Tomorrow's Nightmare" LP
FLEX, THE "Wild Stabs in the Dark" LP
G-GAS "Generation Gas" LP
JUANITA Y LOS FEOS "Nueva Numancia" LP
LATISHIA'S SKULL DRAWING "Romanticized" 12"
LEEWAY "Born to Expire" LP
LEEWAY "Desperate Measures" LP
PART 1 "Funeral Parade" LP
POISON IDEA "Record Collectors are Pretentious Assholes" LP
PRIESTS "Bodies and Control and Money and Power" LP
SIDE BY SIDE "You're Only Young Once" LP
SLANT 6 "Soda Pop Rip Off" LP
V/A - "Killed by Deathrock Vol. 1" Compilation LP
V/A - "New York City Hardcore: The Way it Is" Compilation LP
V/A "Flex Your Head" Compilation LP
ZERO "S/T" LP
